O MONKS, DO AWAY WITH PASSIONS.

 

 

Drop desiring. Our desiring culminates everything. Our desiring becomes our interpretation of everything. The more you desire, the more miserable you will be, because the more you desire, the more will be your expectation. The more you desire, the less grateful you will be, because the more you desire, the more you will feel man proposes and god disposes. The less you desire, the more grateful you be, because the less you desire, the more you will see how much is given without desiring, without asking. If you don’t desire at all, you will be in tremendous gratitude, because so much is given already. Life is such a gift… but we go on with our mind.

 

I have heard:A man was reckoned to be the laziest man in the country and naturally spent most of his time sleeping. He was so inactive and so useless that at one time the townspeople thought it would be a good idea to bury him whether he was dead or alive.

 

They made a crude coffin, came around with it to his house, put him in it without any protest from his family, and started off with the live old critter for the cemetery. Of course there was no resistance from him; he was so lazy. He said, ‘Okay.’ Or he may not have even said that. He may have just watched what was going on.

 

But before they got to the cemetery, they were stopped by a stranger who had heard of the grim proceedings. They told the stranger the man would not work and had not a grain of corn on his place, and the town was sick of providing him with food. ‘Enough is enough,’ they said, ‘and we are fed up.’

 

‘If you boys will hold off, I will gladly give that man a wagonload of corn,’ said the stranger. Before the townspeople could reply, a head was raised out of the coffin, and the almost deceased asked, ‘Is that corn shucked?’

 

The lazy man is worrying about the corn — whether it is shucked or not. He is ready to die, but if he has to shuck the corn, then it is too much effort. A man who is surrounded by laziness looks at everything through his laziness. His laziness becomes his interpretation of things. If you are sleepy, you will look at life with sleepy eyes, naturally. And if you miss life, it is natural — because life is possible only if your eyes are fully alive, if your eyes are radiant with life. If you look at life with alive eyes, there is a meeting, a communion. We live surrounded by clouds of desire. Then those desires become our interpretation. Then we go on thinking according to those desires.

 

It happened: Applicants for a job on a dam had to take a written examination, the first question of which was: What does hydro-dynamics mean?

 

Mulla Nasrudin, one of the applicants for the job, looked at this, then wrote against it: It means I don’t get the job.

 

Whatsoever meaning we give to life, we give it to life. And Buddha is saying if you want to know the real meaning of life, then you have to drop giving all meanings to it. Then the way reveals itself. Then life opens its mysterious doors. You stop giving meaning to it — your desires are giving meaning to it; they are defining the undefinable. And if you remain clouded with your desires, whatsoever you know is nothing but your own dreaming. That’s why we say in India that this life, this so-called life lived through desires, is maya, it is a magical thing. You create it, you are the magician. It is your maya, your magic.

 

We don’t live in the same world, remember. We live in separate worlds, because we don’t live in the same desires. You project your desires, your neighbour is projecting his desires. That’s why when you meet a person and you want to live with a person, with a woman or with a man or with a friend, difficulties arise. That is a clash of two worlds.

 

Everybody is good alone. Together, something goes wrong. I have never come across a wrong person, but every day I come across, I have to watch and see and observe wrong relationships. I never come across a wrong person, but every day I come across wrong relationships. It seems almost all relationships are wrong. Because two persons live in two desire worlds, they have their own magical worlds. When they come together those worlds clash.

 

It happened:One night Mulla Nasrudin was sitting on one side of the fire and his wife on the other. Between them lay the cat and the dog, lazily blinking at the fire. The wife ventured this remark, ‘Now dear, just you look at that cat and dog. See how peacefully and quietly they get along together. Why can’t we do that?’

 

‘That’s all right,’ said Nasrudin, ‘but just you tie them together and see what will happen.’

 

Tie two persons together — that’s what a marriage is — and see what happens. Suddenly two worlds…. It seems almost impossible to understand the woman you love. It should not be so — you love her — but it seems impossible to understand. It is impossible to understand the man you love. It should not be so — you love him — but it seems impossible to understand. It is very easy to understand strangers, it is very difficult to understand people who are very close. To understand your mother, father, brother, sister, friend, is very difficult. The closer you are, the more difficult — because the worlds are clashing.

 

These worlds surround you like a subtle aura. Unless you drop this magical creation that you go on feeding, you will remain in conflict. You will remain in conflict with persons, you will remain in conflict with god. Because he has his own world, and you have your own private world. They never go both together. You have to drop your private mentation. Dropping mentation is what meditation is all about. You have to drop your thinking, desiring. You have just to be, and suddenly everything falls into an organic whole, becomes a harmony.

 

And these desires are the root of the darkness that is surrounding you. These desires are the support, the foundation of the darkness that surrounds you. These desires are the hindrances that don’t allow you to become alert. Beware of these desires. And remember — the word ‘beware’ means be aware. That is the only way. If you really want to get rid of these desires, don’t start fighting them. Otherwise you will miss again. Because if you start fighting with your desires, that means you have created a new desire — to be desireless. Now this desire will clash against other desires. This is changing the language; you remain the same.

 

Don’t start fighting with the desires. When Buddha says, DO AWAY WITH PASSIONS, O MONKS, he does not mean to fight with the passions. Because you can fight only if there is a prize, if you are going to attain something. Then again a desire has arisen — a new shape, a new form, but the same old desire. Don’t fight, just be aware.

 

Beware of desires. Become more watchful, more alert. And you will see — the more alert you are, the less desires are there. Ripples start subsiding, waves start disappearing. And one day, suddenly… any moment it can happen, because all moments are as potential as any other. There is no auspicious moment for it to happen. It can happen in any ordinary moment, because all ordinary moments are auspicious. There is no need for it to happen under a bodhi tree. It can happen under any tree, or even without a tree. It can happen under the roof of your house. It can happen anywhere… because god is everywhere.

 

But by and by become aware. Create more and more awareness, collect more and more awareness. One day the awareness comes to such a point, the energy is so much that it simply explodes. And in that explosion, darkness disappears and light is. Immediately darkness disappears, instantly darkness disappears — and light is. And that light is your own luminosity, so you cannot lose it. Once known, it becomes your eternal treasure.

 

- Osho, “The Discipline of Transcendence, Vol 2, #7”